Karen P.

Experience

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  Fishbowl Challenge

  Aug 2020 - Feb 2021

  New Water Paradigm

  • Collaborated with an international team to design a socially acceptable water filtration system in rural Bolivia• Facilitated weekly team meetings and maintained effective communication with potential investors• Wrote proposals and compiled a pitch deck, was five out of 25 teams to advance to finals

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  VandyHacks

  Jan 2021 - May 2022

  VandyHacks Operations Committee

  • Coordinated logistics, including catering, set-up, scheduling, and keynote speakers for a 36-hour long hackathon with applicants from 100+ universities

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  Vanderbilt University

  Jun 2021 - now

  Undergraduate Research Assistant at the Meiler Lab

  • Refactored and rigorously tested a machine learning protocol that engineers antibodies against predicted viral variants • Created a Python and bash protocol that uses Rosetta to design heterotrimeric vaccines based on the influenza virus• Presented research progress to a multidisciplinary team of five lab members during weekly meetings

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  The SyBBURE Searle Undergraduate Research Program

  Jan 2022 - now

  Undergraduate Research Fellow

  • Received a $1200 stipend to conduct research at the Meiler Lab • Collaborate with a team of three on a design thinking-centered project aimed at developing a clay-based solution for greenhouse gas absorption

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  Roche

  May 2022 - Aug 2022

  Bioinformatics Intern

  • Employed Object Oriented Programming and Pandas in Python to process in-house data • Translated and tested in-house R code into Python • Presented projects to a panel of bioinformatics scientists and >500 other interns during group meeting and final intern showcase

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  Universität Leipzig

  May 2023 - Aug 2023

  Artificial Intelligence Intern at the Künze Lab

  • Developed biochemistry tools in Python to empower an agent to use scientific reasoning to optimize protein stability • Researched methods that would computationally optimize the prediction of stabilizing mutations • Fully funded by the Max Kade Foundation (https://www.maxkadefoundation.org/) to conduct research in Germany